Whitestem Goldenbush

Ericameria discoidea is common in the Rocky Mountains.

Plants 10–40 cm. Stems erect to spreading, abundantly branched, twigs green when young, concealed by whitish, pannose tomentum, sporadically stipitate-glandular. Leaves ascending to spreading; blades linear or oblong to oblanceolate (flat), 10–35 × 2–7 mm, midnerves evident (1–2 fainter, collateral nerves often present), (margins often undulate) apices acute to obtuse, usually apiculate, faces usually stipitate-glandular, resinous; axillary fascicles absent. Heads borne singly or in cymiform to racemiform arrays. Peduncles 3–15 mm (bracts 0–3, reduced, leaflike, whitish tomentose and usually stipitate-glandular). Involucres obconic, 9–13 × 6–10 mm. Phyllaries 12–17 in 2–3 series, green to tan, lanceolate to oblong, 6–10 × 1–2 mm, subequal, outer herbaceous or distally so, inner mostly chartaceous, midnerves evident, (margins of outer often distally stipitate-glandular, of inner narrowly membranous, sometimes minutely ciliolate) apices acute to attenuate, abaxial faces stipitate-glandular. Ray florets 0. Disc florets 10–26; corollas 9–11 mm. Cypselae brownish, narrowly oblong to narrowly ovoid, 5–6 mm, villous; pappi tan, 8.5–11 mm. 2n = 18.

Macronema discoidea Nuttall, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 322. 1840; Haplopappus macronema A. Gray

Ericameria discoidea, commonly known as whitestem goldenbush or sharp-scale goldenweed is a species of flowering shrub in the family Asteraceae. This plant is native to the western United States from California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana.

Ericameria discoidea grows in clumpy thickets on rocky slopes. It is a small shrub reaching a maximum height of 40 centimeters (16 inches). It has many erect branches covered in a foliage of oval-shaped leaves coated in dense white woolly fibers and tiny stalked resin glands. Atop each short branch is an inflorescence of many flower heads, each packed with sometimes as many as 70 disc florets that bloom in golden yellow and wilt to a rusty orange. There are no ray florets.